According to both the box score and my eyes, the Oilers won a hockey game. I'm still not convinced it actually happened.

First Period

I’m guessing there are roughly a half-dozen other people watching tonight’s Oilers game on TV, so it’s my pleasure to bring the highlights to those of you who aren’t watching it. Tonight, I’m focused on Alex Plante, playing his first NHL game thanks to injuries to Souray, Smid, Staios, Arsene and Peckham.

The Oilers get an early power play after ex-Oiler Joni Pitkanen threw the puck up over the boards, earning a two-minute delay of game minor. Four forwards on the first power play unit, as O’Sullivan slides back into Souray’s spot.

The power play was short-lived as Dustin Penner took a lazy hooking penalty. A few seconds later, Andrew Alberts scored off the faceoff, and Jeff Deslauriers lets in the first shot he faces. That was very saveable; from the point and without a serious screen.

Gilbert Brule with a gorgeous chance out front, off a nice rush by Patrick O’Sullivan.

Shawn Horcoff goes for the shot on the two-on-one, but Cam Ward closes the five hole quickly, making a very nice save. He was sprung by Taylor Chorney, who made a nice bank pass off the boards.

Big slap shot from inside the Hurricanes zone; fortunately it went wide as Deslauriers looked nervous.

Nothing earth-shattering from Plante so far; a smart, safe pass and a willingness to take his man in front of the net. So far, so good.

Andrew Alberts with a big hit on Ethan Moreau that sent the Oilers’ captain sprawling. Moreau’s playing with Horcoff and Mike Comrie tonight; Comrie doesn’t look to be a bad fit on the line.

J-F Jacques scores on a bad angle shot that Cam Ward really should have had, and assists go to Marc Pouliot and Alex Plante. Pouliot beat Brind’Amour cleanly on the offensive zone draw, Plante fired it on net and after his shot was blocked dumped it to Pouliot behind the net. Pouliot handed the puck off to Jacques, whose shot somehow eluded Ward. 1-1.

I can’t emphasize enough how ugly that goal was; it looked like it bounced in off Ward’s arm as he tried to catch it. Ridiculous.

Zack Stortini just set Jacques up for beauty in the slot, but Jacques couldn’t convert.

Stephane Yelle just ran Deslauriers with no repercussions whatsoever; Mike Comrie gave him a shove and got in his face but there wasn’t much he could do.

They just showed the replay of the Jacques shot (from Stortini), and while I like to pick on him he deserves credit for knocking down a pass that was about a foot in the air and getting a shot on net.

Gilbert Brule scores to make it 2-1 Edmonton off a pass from Andrew Cogliano. This comes after a glorious Carolina chance thanks to some confusion on the parts of Visnovsky and Chorney.

The Horcoff line is buzzing right now; they don’t have a goal yet but they’ve been generating a ton of chances.

A collapse in the Oilers’ zone; Jeff Deslauriers stole the puck from Visnovsky, threw it in the corner which led to some sustained Carolina possession. Visnovsky then returned the favour by giving the puck away right in front of the net but Carolina couldn’t get a strong shot off.

Nice hit by Alex Plante on Brandon Sutter; a moment later he gets beat back to the front of the net by Sutter, but O’Sullivan and Strudwick bail him out.

Second Period

Shawn Horcoff ends up with a penalty after a long shift of sustained pressure by the Staal line. Horcoff had worked the puck free earlier, but Ethan Moreau gave it away and the Oilers never got it back.

Pouliot skates through three Hurricanes and gets a nice shot in close shorthanded; penalty killing is supposedly a part of his skill set and he looked good at it there.

Good grief. Andrew Cogliano and J-F Jacques are the second forward pairing on the penalty kill; when they clear the zone Jacques smartly changes but Cogliano tries to rag a few more seconds and gets caught on for a long shift.

The Oilers escape unscathed, and despite the personnel employed (Choreny and Strudwick were the second defence pairing) they looked pretty good shutting down the Hurricanes.

Joni Pitkanen’s running scared tonight; he threw the puck over the boards earlier to avoid a hit from Pouliot, and now gets both his stick and his elbow up in Stortini’s face to try and ward off another hit. Not his finest hour.

An ineffective power play comes to its conclusion, sans Dustin Penner. The Oilers get another power play; it’ll be interesting to see if Quinn keeps Penner on the bench.

Holy cow, a Khabibulin sighting! He’s talking about his superstitions, which now include keeping his children from stepping on cracks, lest they break their father’s back (again).

Penner gets out on the power play about half way through, and immediately starts making a difference, generating a dangerous chance in front of the net.

Andrew Cogliano controls the puck along the half boards but does nothing in a variety of ways for about 30 seconds to kill off the remainder of the Oilers’ power play.

Mike Comrie takes a penalty ahead of the play for interference; I don’t think Comrie even saw Gleason coming as he was looking back for the pass. Hard to blame him for that penalty.

Horcoff wins the draw, the Oilers clear the zone, and Horcoff hops off the ice.

Jussi Jokinen comes back the other way, embarrasses Taylor Chorney and then Jeff Deslauriers; either of them could easily have stopped that goal from happening but neither of them did. 2-2.

Tom Gilbert does his best impersonation of a pylon, and gives a nice chance to the opposition. A nice move by Ray Whitney, but there’s no excuse for that play by Gilbert.

Taylor Chorney and Lubomir Visnovsky are not a good defence pairing. In fairness to Visnovsky, Chorney doesn’t help anyone, but they have very similar weaknesses.

Zack Stortini flips the puck to Pouliot behind the net; Pouliot opts for the wraparound and bounces the puck in off the skates of Niclas Wallin. 3-2 Edmonton.

Gilbert Brule just crunched Brett Carson with a dirty hit; from behind and Carson went head-first into the boards. Brule takes a two minute minor for boarding, but that’s at least the third blatantly dirty hit I’ve seen Brule throw this year.

Ray Whitney evens things up by taking an interference penalty as he runs into Jason Strudwick while trying to stay onside.

Sam Gagner scores on the Oilers’ incredibly short power play; Patrick O’Sullivan set it all up and Gagner bangs in the rebound off of Mike Comrie’s shot. 4-2 Edmonton.

Lubomir Visnovsky goes right after Eric Staal with a little bit of fire.

Third Period

Brutal giveaway by Stortini; fortunately for the Oilers Tlusty wasn’t able to get a very good shot away.

Alex Plante takes a big hit from Andrew Alberts but draws a penalty in the process, as Alberts gets whistled for interference.

An uneventful power play expires without much in the way of serious pressure from the Oilers.

The Oilers’ fourth line tonight has been Jekyl and Hyde, and they’re pinned in their own end for the entire shift.

Ray Whitney puts a shot off the post; this two goal lead doesn’t feel at all safe and the third period has been entirely in Carolina’s favour.

O’Sullivan takes a hit to pass the puck to Brule; Alberts levelled him and he made a bee-line for the bench.

Dangerous, dangerous chance has Deslauriers gives the puck away behind the net. He’s been downright frightening with his puck-handling tonight.

Taylor Chorney with a lovely pass right up the middle; Joni Pitkanen one-times it but it goes over the net.

Lots of Carolina pressure, but so far the Oilers have weathered the storm. Jeff Deslauriers’ goaltending has improved but his puck-handling has been just brutal.

Patrick O’Sullivan is getting Mike Comrie’s spot on the shutdown line in the final minutes, but has been a very bad fit.

The Oilers sneak away with a 4-2 win, their first win of 2010.

“Maybe they can run the table in February.” Yeah, Rob. Maybe they can do that.

Oilers Three Stars

1. Shawn Horcoff. No points, but a great game holding the Hurricanes top line at bay and the Oilers’ “checking” line generated a lot of chances against Staal & Co.

2. Mike Comrie. I still can’t figure out why Comrie was a scratch in the Oilers’ last game; he had a nice run tonight and didn’t look at all out of place with Horcoff and Moreau.

3. Marc Pouliot. The Oilers fourth line was a mixture of good and bad, with Pouliot recording the fewest yikes! moments and doing some good things on offence. He also did a nice job on the penalty kill.

Jonathan Willis is a freelance writer.
He currently works for Oilers Nation, Sportsnet and Bleacher Report.
He's co-written three books and worked for myriad websites, including the Edmonton Journal, Grantland, ESPN, The Score, and Hockey Prospectus. He was previously the founder and managing editor of Copper & Blue.

Are you freakin' kidding me? The one game - the single solitary game for tiebreaker insurance - that we need the Oilers to lose . . . well of course they go screw that up too and win it. The only freakin' 4-point game they had on the schedule this year and they find a way to cock it up. Unbelievable. If this costs us 30th spot, I will have a brain aneurysm.

Deslauriers seems to be stunningly inept at reacting to far too many shots. I mean he doesn't even flinch or make any kind of reflex reaction that most NHL goalies or prospective goalies can manage. He often looks like one of Madame Toussaud's wax figures out there.

I bought the PPV tonight. Comrie was the first post-game interview. He mentioned that Quinn sat him out because he thought Mike was depleted after his first game back. I think Quinn made the right call because Comrie was on it tonight. Still, he was breathing pretty hard with a bit of a wheeze in his interview. Looks like the mono coupled with his asthma really kicked the crap out of him.

Would you like a list of Oilers who finished above Horcoff in terms of point production tonight? I never refuted the scoring chances generated statistic from tonight, but I'm talking about results here.

He's the highest paid forward, and yet he continues to fail at cashing in with his multitude of scoring chances. As you said, he finished +2 in terms of chances tonight...but no goals, not even a helper.

You don't pay someone that much money just to do the little things, you pay them to score.

Still way to many grade A giveaways, not enough grit and JDD goes down more than one of Wayne's "girlfriends". Moreau still a step behind. There is no danger of a winning streak. The Canes looked out of it tonight.

"we need the Oilers to lose"
Just because losing is the best thing this team is good at doesn't mean that's the goal here. There is no Sidney Crosby waiting to save this franchise. Worst to first is a pipe dream. Winning breeds success and maybe a few more W's, okay alot more W's, will get this team turned around.

Wow, a win. Our 2 wins in the past 25 games or whatever are against the Leafs and Canes. Nice.

On another note, I for one was glad to see Potulny sit this one out. I watched the Calgary game and thought he was horrible. The play always died with him in the offensive zone, he didn't play well without the puck and he looked like he didn't really care. He deserved to sit.

It's a lot different when one franchise has been billed a "Cup contender" over the past few years by many media pundits...

I'm sure you can figure out which franchise that is. HINT: it isn't the Oilers

This is a good point....what I can't figure out is why the pundits and the fans of said team always think this. Once again this year they had the self anointed best defense in the league. Every year the same thing happens to them (scramble for a 6th to 8th place finish and then gone) and at the end of it they always resign themselves to the fact that the team is a one trick pony and that pony resides in goal. Then the next year roles around and they forget that and again call for the Flames to be a contender....I just don't get it..oh well.

Take away Kipper and they are nothing. When will the media and other pundits get it?

Potulny was sick. I think MAP would have been out, good thing because he played pretty good.

It was kind of disappointing to see how many people were leaving after the 50/50 draw. I can understand if we were losing, but up 2 & on the verge of stopping 13 game skid? Come on 'fans'.

Lots of mention on the radio after the game of the standing ovation. That was the loudest cheer I have heard all year! Pretty impressive, considering I bet there were around 10000 people in there by the time the buzzer went.

Horcoff the 1st star? Maybe the PPV vantage points gave a different impression because he looked brutal to me. He just doesn't use his head sometimes (especially in the offensive zone)...and I think his body is still catching up. Hopefully next year he finally rebounds - I think he's an extremely useful player but he has to fire on all cylinders...isn't really useful unless he's 100%. Comrie and Pouliot looked great, though. Lucky goal for Pouliot but he earned the bounce on a strong play to the net (and strong play overall - he was very physical and was probably our best skater).

Most of our D could take a lesson from Plante - keep it simple, dumb-asses. He played well and seemed to keep up.

Don't quite agree with Robin in the other thread - JDD's play didn't silence anyone tonight. Against a stronger team, that first goal would be the death knell. We were playing a team as bad as us tonight - I'm expecting a sound beating on Wednesday from the Flyers, although it should be an entertaining game.

Yeah, I just read this morning that Potulny was sick. Maybe he was sick Sat. night because I still don't think he played well.
You're right though - MAP apparenlty played well so I guess it's a good thing...

Do you believe the Oilers are choosing to win or lose? They are a lousy team, they don,t have to throw games. Just put Grebeshkov and Gilbert on the ice for 25+ minutes a game and you GOT an automatic loss!!!

I almost had to turn it off after that first goal, absolutely brutal from JDD there. Thought for sure, ie. like Chicago, one bad goal and the whole thing would deflate for a solid pounding. Finished watching Jack handle the evil-doers, go back to the PPV (still free here :P) and we were still in it.

"we need the Oilers to lose"
Just because losing is the best thing this team is good at doesn't mean that's the goal here. There is no Sidney Crosby waiting to save this franchise. Worst to first is a pipe dream. Winning breeds success and maybe a few more W's, okay alot more W's, will get this team turned around.

This season is over until Draft Day. The Oilers could win 20 more games like last night and it wouldn't mean squat. Well, that's not true; it would mean a couple things: 1) That our chances of drafting someone that could crack an NHL squad would fade to practically nothing, and 2) Tambo might decide that he has the makings of a pretty good team on his hands and decide to sit back and assess their ability to win 20 more before making a hasty decision.

Don't get me wrong; I don't mind if the Oil win a few here and there to keep morale high enough so that the cleaning crew doesn't find a player or two every week hanging inside their stall. I was at the Pint cheering for the Oil to win against Calgary on Saturday. What the hell happened there? Want a win against Philly tomorrow? Be my guest. My point was just that if there was one game it really wasn't in their best interest to win, this was the one. It was an extremely limited and temporary positive that could turn out to have some very large negative repercussions later this spring.

Horcoff the 1st star? Maybe the PPV vantage points gave a different impression because he looked brutal to me. He just doesn't use his head sometimes (especially in the offensive zone)...and I think his body is still catching up. Hopefully next year he finally rebounds - I think he's an extremely useful player but he has to fire on all cylinders...isn't really useful unless he's 100%. Comrie and Pouliot looked great, though. Lucky goal for Pouliot but he earned the bounce on a strong play to the net (and strong play overall - he was very physical and was probably our best skater).

Most of our D could take a lesson from Plante - keep it simple, dumb-asses. He played well and seemed to keep up.

Don't quite agree with Robin in the other thread - JDD's play didn't silence anyone tonight. Against a stronger team, that first goal would be the death knell. We were playing a team as bad as us tonight - I'm expecting a sound beating on Wednesday from the Flyers, although it should be an entertaining game.

:)

For crying out loud, I was kidding.
Nobody is going to throw this win back, but Deslauriers looked like he's been possessed by the ghost of Andre Racicot. He's fighting it.

Steps out of The Lab carrying jumper cables and walks across the street to the official Bandwagon Barn. Opening the barn door and he looks across the big empty space to sad looking Bandwagon in the corner. Slowly, and a bit unwillingly, he crosses the dusty planks towards the beast that has not been running since early October. Licking his finger he runs it over a dusty side panel, leaving a streak of extra clean Wagon behind. Picking at a weathered sticker from the cup run he sighs and hops up to the driver seats to turn the key...

chugchchug....chugchuch...

Nothin'...
Sitting back and looking up at the barn rafters he stares for awhile and really wonders if it is worth the effort to try and start this thing up. With a shake of his head he puts down the booster cables, hops out of the drivers seat and walks back to the barn door. With one glance back he exits the barn and returns to The Lab where the New and Improved SuperComputer is humming away...

Are you freakin' kidding me? The one game - the single solitary game for tiebreaker insurance - that we need the Oilers to lose . . . well of course they go screw that up too and win it. The only freakin' 4-point game they had on the schedule this year and they find a way to cock it up. Unbelievable. If this costs us 30th spot, I will have a brain aneurysm.

*Edit: OK, not quite true. They also screwed up a 4-point game against the Leafs on December 30. They have one more against the Buds in March and if I had to guess, they'll turn on the jets for that one too. Losing every game between now and then, no doubt. It's like the Oilers are trying to punish Katz for something, though I can't imagine what.

For crying out loud, I was kidding.
Nobody is going to throw this win back, but Deslauriers looked like he's been possessed by the ghost of Andre Racicot. He's fighting it.

Dammit, my sarcasm radar was malfunctioning. Start using them sideways winky faces or something for us dullards so we can keep up, wouldja? No wait - that would be a sign of the Apocalypse and I want to live...

I do like JDD's style and athleticism...if he can put it together between the ears, he'll be a good starter someday!

The biggest difference between lsat season and this season (barring illness and injuries this season) was having a goalie to save our boys' butts. Roli bailed them out for most of last season. He all but stood on his head game after game. The team he had ahead of him then wasn't much better than the team we have now. I think the "we suck worse than last year" is pretty much down to goaltending.